The containment policy started with the diplomat George Keenan who sort a way to stifle the communist expansion throughout east Europe. This was due to the fact that on the 12th of march 1947 a potential soviet threat faced turkey and Greece to which Truman retaliated with the Truman doctrine stating the united states will commit itself to the free world against totalitarian dictatorships. Some of the strategies included in the latter dubbed containment policy was the formation of NATO, nuclear deterrence (all of which are still in action today) and the Marshall plan to help fund redeveloping western European nations to take a stand against communism. The containment policy involved putting a stop to communism wherever it appeared rather than destroy the ideology as a whole. SUMMARY-
After the long telegram in February 1946 it become clear to Truman that a policy had to of been introduced to take immediate action. When Truman made it into office he requested congress to aid turkey and Greece with 400 million dollars as a starting point to defending the free people. Truman later throughout 1947 was given three alternative strategies, first being to stay in isolation and not get involved in the conflict, the second being to continue détente which Roosevelt had set a great foundation on but he was now dead and the third and final strategy was to make an aggressive effort to destroy the Soviet Union itself proposed by James Burnham who was in fact a former communist.
First American intervention into making the free world secure was the Korean war in 1950-53 which resulted in a stalemate leaving Truman to negotiate peace terms towards the end. Containment later gained a weak reputation in 1956 during the Hungarian uprising by not intervening in the conflict, a decision made by Eisenhower but rather much more enforced the use of the CIA to undermine hostile actions. The Cuban missile crisis was seen as an overwhelming threat to the containment policy as the Americans had soviet missiles placed within range of the U.S but peace terms were negotiated both removing missiles from specific areas of each other’s neighboring countries. After Vietnam it looked like that the communist threat was still very much alive and well and containment was starting to lose ground but within the Ronald Reagan years of 1981-89 Reagan kept funding anti-communist insurgents in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Nicaragua and was seen as going beyond the containment policy but in 1991 the cold war had ended due to Reagan continuously pursuing the containment policy beyond its limits by realizing promoting human rights in hot spot areas was more effective and the Soviets failing to counter appropriately.
CONSEQUENCES-
Due to the aggressive enforcement of the containment policy specifically in wars such as the Korean and Vietnamese war it resulted in thousands of deaths and unstable counties that they had originally intended to be peaceful. Tensions would remain high with the exception of Stalin’s death in 1951 when tensions seemed to be improving but with the continuous government and economic difficulties being faced throughout the end of the 20th century it was short lived. A factor following the containment policy was the arms race and eventually the development of MAD. A large amount of progress was made pursuing this fatal method of peace and stopping communism and capitalism and the threat still remains today and the first time humans have created the technology to wipe out the entire human race.
PERSPECTIVES-
For the containment policy to last from 1947 when the Truman doctrine was introduced to 1991 when the USSR collapses attitudes towards each other were similar. The U.S had seen the USSR as a threat that the world had not seen the likes of before, it was the first time the U.S had meet with an equal superpower. Much of this fear was used for the perspective of both countries people with the use of propaganda showing how big and dangerously evil the enemy was throughout the four decades. The U.S.S.R in particular had similar motives to the U.S
“If you don’t like us, don’t accept our invitations and don’t invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.”
This gives an idea of the sheer determination the U.S.S.R were dealing with in the face of containment. The soviets were never going to let up easy and were determined to win to make sure history was in fact on their side in the near future.
“Cold War? Heck, it was a hot war!” To what extent do you agree with Robert McNamara that it should be considered a hot war?
The end of the 20th century saw much fighting and political turmoil like the world had never seen before. McNamara is correct in saying is was a hot war as he is implying the result of the initial cold war had wrecked so much destruction. As it is true the U.S and Soviets never came into confrontation directly their tactics were cold in combating each other yet the by product of their non confrontational tactics was proxy wars with Vietnam and Korea. These wars resulted in the death of over 6.7 million civilian deaths and show the extent of destruction that became a by product in the search for ideological dominance. The fact still remains that this was a hot war since it even gave humans the technology for the first time in human history to wipe out the entire race with the continuously and fiercely competitive pursuit of nuclear weaponry to prove dominance. A war like this had never been seen before in the worlds history and it created conflicts all throughout the 20th century even today still feeling the effects of the cold war, meaning that McNamara was correct in saying this was a hot war due to the scale it was played on.
Why is the Cold War worth remembering?
It is crucial to remember this war in order to understand today. With an example being the formation of NATO the cold war has resulted in organisations, countries and ideologies that are present today. The events of the cold war also serve as precedent since the world had never sen such a war fought on such a different kind of method. Its also very important to remember the immense loss of life lost by the cold war, the power ideological difference can have over people proved to be fatal and nearly even lead the whole world into an all out nuclear war. One of the more important factors in remembering this war is the power of diplomacy. A continuous theme after Stalin death was the efforts of U.S presidents and soviet leaders to seek peace through treaties as their ideological differences couldn't always be fought by men bearing arms. With Russia today still even trying to claim former soviet lands and insurgents in the middle east mounting rebellions from the U.S investing in them from the 80's to fight communist governments he effects of the cold war don't show a clear sign of ending with the U.S and Russian rivalry still apparently strong its important to remember and realize how so many factors came to appear during the 21st century.
SOURCE 1: This source shows a 1966 liberal party election poster and provides a very similar idea that the Australian people were playing off the same fear as the U.S as the U.S.S.R were driving the ideologies through china and Australia geographically looked like a next target as the red arrows are slowly moving across towards Australia with the text “It’s your choice: Where do you draw the line against communist aggression?” SOURCE 2: this shows the layout across Europe of members of NATO and the opposing U.S.S.R during 1971. The image shows why the U.S valued turkey so much since they are excluded from other NATO members from the west cut off by Bulgaria and the Greek Socialist Republic and the fact that they are bordering the U.S.S.R and are well in range for a nuclear attack.
SOURCE 3: Ronald Reagan addressing the nation on the 23rd March 1983 introducing a new method of containment called STAR WARS which involves putting a satellite into space that has a laser to shoot down any projected missiles fried by the U.S.S.R. It provides an idea of the extent of imagination went into defeating the soviets towards the closing years of the cold war. The program failed as it was beginning to be to expensive and tests were unsuccessful.
Winston Churchill 1946- "Our policy is not directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as a permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist."
SOURCE 4- Churchill addressing the people of the U.K provides an insight into how he portrayed his intentions for the containment policy saying we are not here to defeat a nation but to be rid of poverty chaos and desperation. Historically Churchill always supported Truman and Roosevelt in the policies they proposed.
Provide a basic yet good overview of the events and opinions leading up to the containment Policy. Since the book covers the cold war as a whole it doesn’t have much of an opportunity to go in depth and scrutinize the containment policy.
Biblio details:
“U.S. COLD WAR FOREIGN POLICY – CONTAINMENT” studying humanities site. July 14 2013 Author ‘Vince’
Notes:
Very useful putting the numerous events leading up to containment into perspective by breaking it up into phases throughout the end half of the 20th century into very basic terms.
Biblio details:
“Office of the Historian- Kennan and containment 1947” Site November 1th 2013
Notes:
Provides a useful evaluation how effective the policy was in combating the soviets, does however mainly focus on the efforts of the U.S rather than soviets
Biblio details:
Boundless. “The Cold War and Containment.” Boundless Political Science. Boundless, 26 May. 2016.
Notes:
Vey basic layout of the website providing useful information on the man George Kennan and other key political individuals within the U.S also nice use of images.
Biblio details:
“Containment” Wikipedia Site, last updated 21 august 2016
Notes:
Wikipedia provides a range of information from provoking pictures to a large quantity of information from nearly every aspect of the containment policy. The problem having so much information it doesn’t have the opportunity to go such in depth into every aspect. It does however give a good representation of both the U.S and U.S.S.R.
BY HAMISH DELANY-SMALL
BACKGROUND-
The containment policy started with the diplomat George Keenan who sort a way to stifle the communist expansion throughout east Europe. This was due to the fact that on the 12th of march 1947 a potential soviet threat faced turkey and Greece to which Truman retaliated with the Truman doctrine stating the united states will commit itself to the free world against totalitarian dictatorships. Some of the strategies included in the latter dubbed containment policy was the formation of NATO, nuclear deterrence (all of which are still in action today) and the Marshall plan to help fund redeveloping western European nations to take a stand against communism. The containment policy involved putting a stop to communism wherever it appeared rather than destroy the ideology as a whole.SUMMARY-
After the long telegram in February 1946 it become clear to Truman that a policy had to of been introduced to take immediate action. When Truman made it into office he requested congress to aid turkey and Greece with 400 million dollars as a starting point to defending the free people. Truman later throughout 1947 was given three alternative strategies, first being to stay in isolation and not get involved in the conflict, the second being to continue détente which Roosevelt had set a great foundation on but he was now dead and the third and final strategy was to make an aggressive effort to destroy the Soviet Union itself proposed by James Burnham who was in fact a former communist.
First American intervention into making the free world secure was the Korean war in 1950-53 which resulted in a stalemate leaving Truman to negotiate peace terms towards the end. Containment later gained a weak reputation in 1956 during the Hungarian uprising by not intervening in the conflict, a decision made by Eisenhower but rather much more enforced the use of the CIA to undermine hostile actions. The Cuban missile crisis was seen as an overwhelming threat to the containment policy as the Americans had soviet missiles placed within range of the U.S but peace terms were negotiated both removing missiles from specific areas of each other’s neighboring countries. After Vietnam it looked like that the communist threat was still very much alive and well and containment was starting to lose ground but within the Ronald Reagan years of 1981-89 Reagan kept funding anti-communist insurgents in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Nicaragua and was seen as going beyond the containment policy but in 1991 the cold war had ended due to Reagan continuously pursuing the containment policy beyond its limits by realizing promoting human rights in hot spot areas was more effective and the Soviets failing to counter appropriately.
CONSEQUENCES-
Due to the aggressive enforcement of the containment policy specifically in wars such as the Korean and Vietnamese war it resulted in thousands of deaths and unstable counties that they had originally intended to be peaceful. Tensions would remain high with the exception of Stalin’s death in 1951 when tensions seemed to be improving but with the continuousgovernment and economic difficulties being faced throughout the end of the 20th century it was short lived. A factor following the containment policy was the arms race and eventually the development of MAD. A large amount of progress was made pursuing this fatal method of peace and stopping communism and capitalism and the threat still remains today and the first time humans have created the technology to wipe out the entire human race.
PERSPECTIVES-
For the containment policy to last from 1947 when the Truman doctrine was introduced to 1991 when the USSR collapses attitudes towards each other were similar. The U.S had seen the USSR as a threat that the world had not seen the likes of before, it was the first time the U.S had meet with an equal superpower. Much of this fear was used for the perspective of both countries people with the use of propaganda showing how big and dangerously evil the enemy was throughout the four decades. The U.S.S.R in particular had similar motives to the U.S“If you don’t like us, don’t accept our invitations and don’t invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.”
Nikita Khrushchev, November 18, 1956.
This gives an idea of the sheer determination the U.S.S.R were dealing with in the face of containment. The soviets were never going to let up easy and were determined to win to make sure history was in fact on their side in the near future.“Cold War? Heck, it was a hot war!”
To what extent do you agree with Robert McNamara that it should be considered a hot war?
The end of the 20th century saw much fighting and political turmoil like the world had never seen before. McNamara is correct in saying is was a hot war as he is implying the result of the initial cold war had wrecked so much destruction. As it is true the U.S and Soviets never came into confrontation directly their tactics were cold in combating each other yet the by product of their non confrontational tactics was proxy wars with Vietnam and Korea. These wars resulted in the death of over 6.7 million civilian deaths and show the extent of destruction that became a by product in the search for ideological dominance. The fact still remains that this was a hot war since it even gave humans the technology for the first time in human history to wipe out the entire race with the continuously and fiercely competitive pursuit of nuclear weaponry to prove dominance. A war like this had never been seen before in the worlds history and it created conflicts all throughout the 20th century even today still feeling the effects of the cold war, meaning that McNamara was correct in saying this was a hot war due to the scale it was played on.
Why is the Cold War worth remembering?
It is crucial to remember this war in order to understand today. With an example being the formation of NATO the cold war has resulted in organisations, countries and ideologies that are present today. The events of the cold war also serve as precedent since the world had never sen such a war fought on such a different kind of method. Its also very important to remember the immense loss of life lost by the cold war, the power ideological difference can have over people proved to be fatal and nearly even lead the whole world into an all out nuclear war. One of the more important factors in remembering this war is the power of diplomacy. A continuous theme after Stalin death was the efforts of U.S presidents and soviet leaders to seek peace through treaties as their ideological differences couldn't always be fought by men bearing arms. With Russia today still even trying to claim former soviet lands and insurgents in the middle east mounting rebellions from the U.S investing in them from the 80's to fight communist governments he effects of the cold war don't show a clear sign of ending with the U.S and Russian rivalry still apparently strong its important to remember and realize how so many factors came to appear during the 21st century.
SOURCE 1: This source shows a 1966 liberal party election poster and provides a very similar idea that the Australian people were playing off the same fear as the U.S as the U.S.S.R were driving the ideologies through china and Australia geographically looked like a next target as the red arrows are slowly moving across towards Australia with the text “It’s your choice: Where do you draw the line against communist aggression?”
SOURCE 2: this shows the layout across Europe of members of NATO and the opposing U.S.S.R during 1971. The image shows why the U.S valued turkey so much since they are excluded from other NATO members from the west cut off by Bulgaria and the Greek Socialist Republic and the fact that they are bordering the U.S.S.R and are well in range for a nuclear attack.
SOURCE 3: Ronald Reagan addressing the nation on the 23rd March 1983 introducing a new method of containment called STAR WARS which involves putting a satellite into space that has a laser to shoot down any projected missiles fried by the U.S.S.R. It provides an idea of the extent of imagination went into defeating the soviets towards the closing years of the cold war. The program failed as it was beginning to be to expensive and tests were unsuccessful.
Winston Churchill 1946-
"Our policy is not directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as a permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist."
SOURCE 4- Churchill addressing the people of the U.K provides an insight into how he portrayed his intentions for the containment policy saying we are not here to defeat a nation but to be rid of poverty chaos and desperation. Historically Churchill always supported Truman and Roosevelt in the policies they proposed.
TIMETOAST Cold War
Timetoast
Bibliography-
London, Routledge 1991 Chapter 2 ‘confrontation’